Anyone trying to go REP-63 with a med waiver can read through my story to see what I had to do to get Airborne. Hopefully my mistakes will save A LOT of time:

Some things to keep in mind:
• This only applies to NG. Active Army can put in for an ETP through proper workflow.
• Anyone who helps you is doing it out of his or her good graces. Please keep this in mind.
• My medical waiver was for a heart murmur that I had when I was a young child. I had been medically cleared by no less than 7 experts in the field and had the paperwork to back it up.
• I left out certain steps in the hopes of shortening the post. If you have questions PM me and I will explain in more detail.

Upon initial contact with my recruiter, I explained that I was extremely interested in a Rep63 contract. I made it into MEPS July2, 2013 and my ASVAB score: 86, high enough to get a Rep63 contract. The MEPS Physician opened my file and saw that I had noted an Innocent Heart Murmur when I was a young child. After completing the rest of my physical, I was told that I required a Medical waiver for the Innocent Heart Murmur. While this did infuriate me, I understand the necessary evil that these regulations are. I wouldn’t want someone on my team dropping of a heart attack on a long ruck or a jump.

My waiver was submitted on July 2nd and I did not get a response until September 12th. The National Guard Bureau (NGB) had DENIED my medical waiver. I took to the Internet to find POC’s for people whom I considered to be influential in the waiver arena. I eventually got to speak with some very admirable people. Among these were the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, The Adjutant General of Colorado, MEPCOM I.G., Ed Pearlmutter, and the Surgeons at the National Guard Bureau. Eventually I was able to get the waiver approved. By this time it was April 10th of 2014. (This board is specific to SF and as such I will not go into detail about my denied accessions waiver)

It wasn’t until I sat down in front of the Guidance Counselor that I was told I couldn’t enlist 18X because I had a Med Waiver (No waivers get airborne/No ABN=No 18X). I took a couple of days to research my situation and returned to the NG Liaisons office at MEPS with the idea of putting in for an Exception to Policy (ETP). All of the NCO’s in the office told me that no such thing existed and I should enlist 11B. Respectfully, I insisted that Google could turn up hundreds of results supporting my understanding. One of the NCO’s called the ROC just to shut me up and to everyone’s surprise, the man on the phone agreed with me. He stated that, “An exception to policy can be made by Airborne.” At this point the NCO hung up the phone and told me to wait outside. A couple minutes later I was asked back into the office and told that they weren’t able to get me an ETP. Then I was told that if I wanted an ETP I should try “Googling it”.

I left MEPS that day extremely discouraged. The only thing I could think to do was go down to Ft. Benning and try to get an ETP from Airborne. I flew into ATL in early June of 2014. When I came face to face with the soldier on staff duty, I asked who I could talk to about getting a Medical Waiver to attend the Basic Airborne Course (BAC). This young soldier walked me down the hall and into a classroom full of students from the Navy, Marines, and Army (judging by their cammies/ no tiger stripes) and up to the Instructor. The man leading the class was a SFC who wore 3Bn/75Th tags on his sleeve. I told him that I was there seeking an Exception to Policy so I could get an Airborne stamp in my accessions contract. At this, he laughed and said, “Wooaahh man, you are looking for a recruiters office!” He absolutely thought that I had come into this classroom thinking it was how to enlist.
After the entire class had a good laugh at my expense, I explained my situation a little further and the instructor told me to go wait in his office. A couple hours later, I was sat down in front of the National Guard Liaison to Airborne. By the time I was finished explaining myself, there must’ve been seven or so guys in there from 3Bn/75th who were extremely “Fired up” by my story. I didn’t have enough money to stay in Georgia through the weekend so the Liaison and myself exchanged contact info and I returned to Denver empty handed.

The following week the Liaison emailed me multiple times about his progress but I didn’t hear from him again for sometime. I called one of the 3Bn/75th guys to see if the Liaison was out of the office. It turns out that the NG Liaison had been PCS’d. So I was left dead in the water once again.

I used one day to drive down to the CONG Joint Force Headquarters in Centennial. I spent the next 20 minutes walking around the JFHQ compound trying to find the Recruitment and Retention offices. The NCOIC of RR was out for the day so I left my contact info with his aid and left. After not hearing anything for a week or so I decided to follow up. It was then that I was told (By someone in S1) that the Rep63 program had been cancelled and that even with an ETP I wouldn’t be able to enlist 18X.

Wanting to confirm this, I got in contact with the Readiness NCO from B/5/19Th, a SFC. He agreed to meet with me and see if he could assist me in anyway. We met in Watkins near the first of July ’14. I got to sit down with him, a couple members of his team, and a recruiter friend of his. After explaining my situations, their team 18D looked over my medical jacket and gave me the thumbs up. The readiness NCO passed my situation up his CoC in the hopes of getting me a waiver from SWCS. He and the National Guard Liaison to JFKSWCS (0-5) got my waiver approved within DAYS. Unfortunately the Guidance Counselor at MEPS informed me that the waiver from SWCS wouldn’t be sufficient, as I needed to be cleared for airborne training, which was not covered by JFKSWCS.

Airborne is an element of the U.S. Army Infantry School System (I.e. Pathfinder, Mountain Warfare, Ranger, Sniper, Airborne, Etc.). So I decided to get in touch with the CSM of the School of Infantry and ask his permission to seek a waiver. A couple of emails later and he had me in touch with the Director of the Office of the Chief of Infantry (OCOI = Waiver Authority for Army Infantry School System) and I emailed him copies of all pertinent med DOC’s (2808/2807/ABN Phys). It couldn’t have been more than 2 days before I got a call from the Director OCOI saying I had been fully cleared and he could sign off on my waiver.

The day I received a copy of the Waiver from the OCOI (20150113) I took it into the Counselor at MEPS. He and I shared a laugh over my continued efforts and he agreed to send the waiver up to the NGB for approval.

A couple weeks later (02/12) I got the call from the Counselor saying I had been cleared for Airborne and could enlist Rep-63. In the end what worked for me was getting an exception to policy from the Office of the Chief of Infantry.

So today I was able to go in and enlist into the SF program. I ship to OSUT 03/31 at Ft. Benning. Finally, my journey begins.